Asia, Nepal, Gaurishankar Attempt

Gaurishankar Attempt. A nine-man Japanese expedition led by Masaaki Tomita attempted to repeat the American 1979 route on the southwest face of Gaurishankar (7134 meters, 23,906 feet). Base Camp at 12,800 feet was much lower than planned and was difficult to approach because of deep snow. Two Sherpas ferried loads to Camp II at 17,050 feet. They had two more high camps. Satoru Hashimoto, Takashi Iihama, Akira Kiuchi and Hiroyuki Kuraoka reached almost 23,000 feet on May 22 but gave up the climb because of a 150-foot vertical rock wall above them; the expedition had no strength left to surmount this final obstacle. They had constantly heavy snowfall, which required them to remake the route constantly. One member was injured by falling rock and two others escorted him to Kathmandu.